David Thomas, Pere Ubu Singer, Dead at 71

David Thomas, lead singer of the avant-garage band Pere Ubu and the Cleveland proto-punk group Rocket From the Tombs, has died at the age of 71.

Pere Ubu’s official Facebook announced Thomas’ death Thursday, adding that the singer died following a long illness; Thomas previously revealed that he was battling kidney disease.

“On Wednesday, April 23 2025, he died in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn,’” the band said in a statement.

Thomas first emerged out of the fertile Cleveland rock scene of the mid-Seventies with the influential punk group Rocket From the Tombs, which paired the singer with cult guitarists Peter Laughner and Cheetah Chrome. Out of the ashes of that band’s initial short-lived tenure — which produced no official releases but spawned oft-bootlegged tracks like “Ain’t It Fun” (later covered by Guns N’ Roses) and “Sonic Reducer” (often performed live by Pearl Jam) — rose Dead Boys (co-founded by Chrome, with singer Stiv Bators) and Pere Ubu, which Thomas formed alongside Laughner in 1975.

While Laughner died in 1977 from the effects of alcoholism, Pere Ubu continued on, releasing their debut album The Modern Dance in 1978. The band became known for their lo-fi meshing of disparate musical styles (prog-rock, avant-garde, garage-punk) as well as Thomas’ boisterous role as frontman, where he’d perform against type in a suit and tie.

Soon after The Modern Dance, Pere Ubu released what is considered their most enduring album, 1978’s Dub Housing. The band would release three more, equally experimental LPs before dissolving in 1982. Thomas next put out a trio of solo albums with his backing band the Pedestrians in the Eighties before reconvening Pere Ubu, with whom Thomas remained (albeit with an ever-rotating lineup) until his death on Wednesday.

In addition to leading the second wave of Pere Ubu — yielding another dozen studio albums, including the standout 1989 LP Cloudland — Thomas also reformed Rocket From the Tombs in the early 2000s alongside Cheetah Chrome and Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, with that group releasing their first three albums over the next decade. The always-active Thomas also kept busy with his own solo projects as well as theatrical productions and other collaborations, like a star-studded album of sea shanties.

“David Thomas and his band have been recording a new album. He knew it was to be his last,” Pere Ubu’s statement continued. “We will endeavor to continue with mixing and finalizing the new album so that his last music is available to all. Aside from that, he left instruction that the work should continue to catalog all the tapes from live shows via the official bandcamp page. His autobiography was nearly completed and we will finish that for him.”

The band added in conclusion, “We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can – ‘My name is David Fucking Thomas…  and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock n roll band in the world.’ Long live Pere Ubu.’